


Escaping Sheol

by Lost_And_Longing



Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender, Fullmetal Alchemist - All Media Types, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood & Manga
Genre: Alternate Universe, Angst, BAMF Edward Elric, BAMF Roy Mustang, But don't worry about it, Crossover, Everything Changed When The Fire Nation Attacked, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Parental Roy Mustang, Plot, Slow Burn, War, are those a thing?, if not they are now, it's actually amestris, slow burn parental relationships
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-12-17
Updated: 2021-03-01
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:41:19
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 16,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28122522
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Lost_And_Longing/pseuds/Lost_And_Longing
Summary: Avatar Edward Elric was born to restore balance to a world devastated by Amestris' War of Fire, but the only thing he wants to do is get his little brother's earthbending back. Unfortunately, outpacing destiny is never as easy as it seems.Ft: BAMF Ed, Ling actually being a main character, and parental!Roy Mustang (he just doesn't know it yet).
Relationships: Alphonse Elric & Edward Elric, Edward Elric & Roy Mustang
Comments: 12
Kudos: 64





	1. Chapter 1

Edward Elric was well-practiced in dragging himself from the grave. He had dragged himself, on one hand and one knee, from the wrong side of eternity enough times for Sheol to recognize him, and he would not stop now or ever, not until Al was once more able to move the earth with his will. 

This determination, however, did not stop Izumi Curtis from attempting to put him all the way on the wrong side of the grave, repeatedly. 

"Hey! Watch it!" 

Ed dodged the slab of rock with two parts luck and three parts instinct, which was par for the course as far as Ed's usual fighting tactics were concerned. He ducked the next rock and leaped over the third, landing in a crouch with one hand on the ground and the other poised to fight.

"What d'you think you're doing!?" Ed demanded indignantly. "You could've given me a concussion!"

"And if I did, that'd be your own fault for losing concentration! I don't run a daycare here!"

Izumi Curtis, or Teacher as Ed and Al, Ed's brother, called her, glared down at Ed with both hands on her hips. Since bending of any kind comes from the body, such a position would normally limit one's ability to bend. Unfortunately, such was not the case with Izumi. 

Ed felt the vibration through the earth first, utterly unheralded by any movement of Izumi's. He rolled to one side and saw spikes of earth jut out of where he'd just been. With a forwards shove of his arm, he sent the spikes flying towards Izumi. A solid wall of earth flew up in front of her and the spikes shattered uselessly against it. 

Growling, Ed surged to his feet and blew a wisp of hair out of his mouth, surveying his opponent carefully. For all that Izumi claimed that she was nothing but a housewife, she was an extraordinarily talented earthbender - the most powerful one Ed had ever fought and possibly the most powerful in all of Drachma, if not the entire world. As far as teachers go, Ed could not have picked a better one to teach him earthbending. It did mean, though, that every training session with her was hard as hell. 

"I see you're finally beginning to think like an earthbender," Izumi said approvingly. "Good. The best earthbenders always wait and listen-"

A slab of rock hurled her into the air. Ed pivoted on his heel and set it into the ground, punching forward with his fist. The earth swelled up and formed into a fist which began to encircle Izumi. She broke the earth into dust and hit the ground in a crouch. She stomped her foot and a huge number of stones flew towards Ed-

A solid stone struck her from behind and all of her attacks fell down and melded back into the earth.

"-for the right moment to attack," Ed finished the quote with a shit-eating grin. "Yeah, I remember. You beat that into me like a drum."

"And it's about time you learned it, too!" Izumi told him, rubbing the back of her head as she stood. "I thought you'd grow rusty on your travels, but it seems you've finally begun to master earthbending."

"Begun to master it!? I've fully mastered earthbending, you old hag! You're just jealous I'm better than you!"

"The Avatar should be better than a simple housewife! If you can't even beat me, I don't see how you could call yourself the Avatar, you little runt!"

"WHAT DID YOU JUST CALL ME?"

"Um...Teacher? Brother?"

Both Izumi and Ed swung to face the new speaker with belligerent glares and yelled in unison, "WHAT?"

To his credit, Alphonse Elric didn't even shrink. "Sig wanted to ask if you could keep it down, since he's talking to a new customer."

"You can't keep down training the Avatar!" Izumi said indignantly. "Tell Sig that, if Ed fails as an Avatar and doesn't bring balance back to the world, it's his fault." 

"'Bring balance to the world,'" Ed scoffed. "That's not even what Avatars are for anymore. No one gives a fuck who the Avatar is, and they're not gonna. I just wanna get Al's earthbending back, and fuck anyone who tells me otherwise."

Izumi sighed. "We've talked about this, Ed - you know what's at stake if you don't fulfill your duties as Avatar."

"If the Avatar spirit wanted an Avatar to care about politics, it shouldn't have picked me, is all _I'm_ gonna say," said Ed dismissively. Izumi had tried to convince him to follow his "destiny" ever since she had first started teaching Ed and Al, at ages nine and eight respectively. She had not gotten far. Ed just wanted his brother to earthbend again. As a Drachman, Ed had no interest in Amestrian politics, and he wasn't ever going to. 

"Amestris' War of Fire has gone far beyond the scope of politics, Edward. The Air Nomad Genocide should have be enough for you to see that."

Ed shifted uncomfortably. Drachma, Amestris, and Xing might be the prime producers of earthbenders, firebenders, and waterbenders respectively, yet it was not exclusive. It was possible for a bender to be born to a different country than his main element. Ed and Al's mother had actually been Amestrian, but both of them had been born as earthbenders - although, as the Avatar, Ed was capable of learning the three other elements as well.

However, although earth, fire, and waterbenders could be found in any country, only the Air Nomads could airbend. It had to do with the freedom of air as an element and the spirituality of the Air Nomads themselves. Amestris had begun a campaign to systematically exterminate them before Ed was born. 

The Air Nomad Genocide had ended seven years ago with Amestris' confirmation of the death of the very last airbender.

"The only thing that would bring balance back to the world would be the return of the airbenders, and I've already tried bringing the dead back once." Ed set his left arm over the cold, metal automail that made up the entirety of his right arm. His left leg from the knee down was also automail - a mechanical prosthesis that functioned almost exactly like a normal limb. 

"But you can stop Amestris from destroying the world yet more." Izumi's voice was flat and rote. 

"Yeah, yeah, you've said that before. As far as we can tell, Amestris isn't going to do anything else. In any case, since there aren't any airbenders, I have no one to teach me how to airbend, so I'll never become a full Avatar anyway. So what's the point in doing Avatarly stuff if I'm not even a real Avatar?"

Al and Izumi exchanged looks. Al agreed with her that Ed should be a better Avatar and perform the usual Avatar duties of mastering the four elements and keeping the world balanced, but he'd stopped trying to convince Ed and instead went along with whatever Ed wanted to do. Since everything Ed did involved researching ways to get Al's earthbending back, Ed didn't think Al had much of a problem with it. Al missed his bending almost as much as he missed their mom.

"We're finished for today," Izumi said. She started heading towards her house, motioning Ed and Al towards her. "I'm not going to try and change your mind when I know it's useless. Instead, tell me about your research. Have you found anything yet?"

Ed's shoulders slumped and he glared at the passing ground as he followed her inside. "No, nothing. It's dead-end after dead-end."

"I wouldn't say that, brother," Al said comfortingly. "We did read that book about chakras written by that spirit guru..."

"Who was an Air Nomad, which means he's dead and anyone who could've interpreted his works is as well."

It was Al's turn to slump. Much gentler and sweeter than Ed ever was, he only gave a mournful look instead of a copy of Ed's glare. 

Izumi opened the door and ushered them inside. "I've always found it hard to believe that Amestris could confidently declare the extermination of a nomadic people," she said. "Yes, they might've had four main clans, but Air Nomads are rarely blood-related. I'd bet my organs that there's still someone out there you could talk to about that."

"Don't gamble away your organs, Teacher!" Al said, wide-eyed. "There's not much left of them!" 

Izumi laughed, giving Al one of her rare smiles. "Don't worry, Al, I'm not about to. But both of you boys, don't give up hope. I know you've been looking for years now, but the energy in this land is changing. I can feel it. Something big is about to happen."

"Yeah, sure," Ed said dismissively. "Doesn't mean it's gonna help us, though."

"Not with that attitude it won't!" Izumi snapped.

The three of them had made it to the front room of the house, where Izumi and Sig, her husband, had their butcher shop. Sig was talking to the customer - or, at least, to a man whom Ed assumed was the customer Al had mentioned. 

Sig turned towards the three of them as they appeared. "Ah, sweetheart, there you are. I was just telling this nice young man about our trip to the Summit of Meneva. He's from Amestris and I wanted to give him some tourism ideas."

Izumi smiled and bowed with her fist against the palm of the other hand, pointing up. "It's nice to meet you; we don't get many Amestrians in Drachma, as I'm sure you can imagine." 

Although Amestris and Drachma weren't currently at odds, Amestris' War of Fire had hardly endeared them to any of the surrounding countries. The Drachman-Amestrian border was highly guarded on both sides. Understandably, that had greatly lessened tourism for the past several years.

The customer smiled back. He looked unusual for an Amestrian, Ed had to say. He had the pale skin and hair usual for Amestrians, but Ed had never seen purple eyes before in anyone, Amestrian or not. His clothes looked weird, too, but as Ed hadn't lived in Amestris since he was young, that was probably Amestrian fashion.

"It's nice to meet you, too. Yes, it sure is a shame that our countries are the way they are right now. I hope you'll forgive me for not buying anything; I've heard good things about this shop from the hotel staff and I wanted to check it out. Sight-seeing and all that."

Something in the way the customer spoke seemed off. Ed bristled and went to speak, but Al put a staying hand on his shoulder. 

"We would hardly expect a traveler to buy our meat," Izumi said. "After all, you don't have anywhere to cook it."

"Unfortunately so," the customer said. His eyes shifted over to Al, then Ed, and rested on him for too long. "What have we here? These can't be your children, can they?"

"Oh, no," Izumi said, laughing. Sig laughed with her. "These are our apprentices."

"Orphans, I suppose? They don't look Drachman."

"I was raised here, so shut up!" Ed snapped, finally unable to take the weird tension in the room. "And I can say the same about you, you don't look very Amestrian!"

"I don't?" The customer looked down at himself. He looked strangely disappointed. "That's too bad. I do hope I'm not being rude in noticing how lovely your golden eyes are, though. I've never seen their like - one of your parents must've been quite exotic."

Ed and Al had gotten their golden eyes and hair from their dad. Ed's mouth formed automatically in a snarl at the thought of him. It subsided when Al nudged him and gave him a look. The two brothers had spent enough time in life-threatening situations for Ed to interpret that look correctly as _this is starting to get weird._ Ed fully agreed.

"As a country with a large earthbender population, you'll find we are pretty diverse," Izumi said. She was still smiling. "I'm sorry, but we're closing early today. Why don't you come back tomorrow and we can talk some more? Drachmans are always hospitable to strangers."

The customer's face turned unreadable, then he flashed another smile that was just as off as his first. "Of course. I'll see you tomorrow. Thank you for all the information, it's been very helpful."

He turned and was gone in a jangle of bells, the door clicking shut behind him. As one, all four of the remaining occupants loosed a breath.

"What the fuck was that?" Ed asked. For once, no one censored him.

"It wasn't good, whatever it was," Sig said. He turned to Izumi. "He was asking about the Avatar before you came in. I didn't tell him anything, but the way he looked at Ed...I don't like it."

Ed definitely hadn't liked it either. He'd looked at Ed like he was appraising a new horse, or maybe a fattened pig. To keep up appearances, though, Ed said, "Oh, chill out! It's not like he can figure out who the Avatar is just from looking at him. Even you weren't that good, Teacher."

As a matter of fact, Izumi had only learned of Ed's status as Avatar after she'd caught Ed firebending, several months into training. Ed had already known he was the Avatar and had been practicing firebending on his own. She'd given him quite the walloping and told him not to even attempt firebending until he'd fully mastered earthbending. 

"What did you just say!?" Izumi asked, glaring at him. She hefted one sandal in her hand menacingly.

Ed shrank backwards. He'd become acquainted with her sandal upon occasion and was not fond of it. "N-nothing!"

"That's what I thought." She replaced the sandal and sighed. "Even so, the fact that an Amestrian showed up at our store to ask about the Avatar is...disquieting, to say the least. It really makes me wonder if the rumors about Amestris murdering the last two Avatars are true. If they are..."

Ed swallowed.

"He was probably just a curious tourist," Al said, always the optimist. "It's probably those rumors that even made him ask that! Since the next Avatar in the cycle had to be an earthbender, there's a good chance he would be born in Drachma."

Izumi looked at the door, her eyes troubled. "I hope you're right." 

* * *

The next day, the news came. Sig burst through the door with a newspaper in his hands, his face grave. He said nothing, only pointed to the headline.

AMESTRIS DECLARES WAR ON DRACHMA UNDER SUSPICION OF HARBORING AVATAR

"Well," said Ed eloquently, "fuck."

Izumi raised an eyebrow at him. "So?"

Ed took a deep, deep breath. He had already stood by and allowed the extinction of the Air Nomads. He would not let it happen again. Ed set his jaw, grabbed the newspaper out of Sig's hands, and lit it on fire.

As the ashes littered the floor, Ed turned to Izumi. "So, I guess it's time I become the Avatar."


	2. Chapter 2

"Well, it looks like we're on our own again." Al's quiet voice filtered through the air.

Ed stared up at the blank ceiling of their hotel room and sighed. "Yeah, I guess so."

They were now in Armavir, a Drachman city a mere twenty miles from the Drachman-Amestrian border. The two boys had left the Curtises behind four days ago, not willing for them to be targeted on suspicion of aiding the Avatar. Since they were fairly certain that the Amestrian citizen who had come to their shop was a spy, the Curtises had closed down their shop and moved to a different city until the war was resolved. A butcher's skills were always in demand somewhere, so at least they weren't in fear of their livelihoods. Even still, Ed hated that he was the one who had endangered them. Or rather, that his status as Avatar had.

"Why did I have to be the stupid Avatar, anyway?" Ed muttered, just loud enough to be heard by Al. "Couldn't they have picked someone who actually _wanted_ to be the Avatar?"

"I don't think that's how it works, Ed. I don't think the Avatar spirit knew what you were going to be like when you got older. It would have to be able to see the future to know that, after all."

As usual, Al had a point. Ed pushed himself up on one elbow to look over at Al. "So you're saying it's completely random then? What if it accidentally picked an evil person to be Avatar?"

"Well..." Al hesitated. Whereas Ed's thoughts were swift and erratic like sparks, Al thought slower and steadier. Out of the two of them, Al was much more like an earthbender. The irony of that never failed to make Ed laugh. 

"See? This whole Avatar stuff is bullshit," Ed declared. "Either the Avatar spirit has no idea who it's picking, in which case it might pick people entirely unsuited to be Avatars, or it knows exactly who it's picking, in which case choosing an Avatar like me was a dumbass decision."

"Well there's no point in complaining about it _now,"_ Al said snippily. "You are the Avatar and Amestris just declared war on an entire country because of you, so you're just going to have to deal."

Ed gaped at Al. He almost opened his mouth to start an entire tirade on how he had never asked Amestris to declare anything on anyone, much less war on Ed's homeland, and how being given a title he had never wanted in no way made him responsible for what other people did because of said title, but stopped. He took a breath to steady himself and laid back down.

"I'm sorry we can't focus on getting your bending back until this is over."

There was a long sigh from the other side of the room. "It's okay, Brother."

"It's not okay! It's been seven years now, and we aren't any closer to getting it back than we were then!"

"We will get it back, okay?" Al's voice was that familiar mixture of determined and comforting that Ed simultaneously needed and regretted. Al should be the one being comforted, not the other way around. "Earthbending is about waiting for the right time to strike, and I bet that getting mine back won't be any different. We're going to get it back, and your body, too!"

Ed forced a smile. "Yeah!"

The two of them lapsed into silence for a little while. Then Al said, "I know we're going to Amestris to look for a firebending teacher, but have you thought about how we're actually going to find one?"

Ed frowned upwards. "I dunno, but I can tell you I'll never let one of those _voykozyols_ teach me."

 _Voykozol_ was a Drachman slang term used to describe Amestrian soldiers, although it was usually reserved for those of higher ranks, like firebenders. All firebenders in Amestris started at the rank of sergeant, meaning regular soldiers had to work ten times as hard to get to the same position as a firebender. It was yet another reason Ed hated Amestris. In Drachma, a soldier was only given a leadership position when they showed themselves capable of leadership, not because they were naturally gifted at destroying things. 

"You might not have any other choice, though. We've heard those rumors about how they're conscripting all their powerful firebenders now. The only ones left aren't going to be good enough teachers for you. And we don't have enough time to try and find a powerful firebender in Xing."

Xing was a country to the east of Amestris. Just as Drachma's bending population favored earthbenders and Amestris' firebenders, so Xing was renowned for its population of waterbenders and healers. A large desert directly between Amestris and Xing had kept Amestris' aggression contained, but Ed had heard of Amestris capturing a few of Xing's border cities. Al was right. There was little chance there was a firebender skilled enough to teach Ed firebending in Xing, and even littler chance Ed would be able to find them and be taught by them fast enough.

"I wish we had one here," Ed said. "If we hadn't already looked for one for over five years, I might've kept trying." 

"You never know," Al said. "Maybe some really powerful firebender from Xing will come to Amestris just for you!"

Ed laughed. "Keep dreaming, Al."

"I'm serious! Destiny is a real thing, Brother."

Ed rolled over on his side and closed his eyes. "Whatever you say. Goodnight, Al."

"Goodnight, Ed."

* * *

"Ed, don't you think we should really be leaving Armavir soon? We've already been here for four days..."

Ed shushed him distractedly, holding up a gloved hand in the vague direction of Al's face. Pieces of blond hair had fallen out of the braid he kept it in and into his eyes, but Ed didn't seem to notice. It would have been generous to say that his face was several inches from the book he was reading; the distance was far closer to centimeters. Several more books sat next to him, each open to a specific page, while a haphazard pile of tomes wobbled unsteadily next to Ed's chair. 

Al surveyed the scene with an expression that would have been difficult to decipher even if Ed had cared to try. "What are all these books on?"

Ed didn't respond. Al repeated the question, a little louder though still quiet enough to not rouse the librarian's ire.

Finally, Ed looked up with a glare. His eyes had that unfocused look that comes from suddenly being interrupted from something that required your utmost concentration. "What? You better not be tellin' me the library's burning down or something."

Al bit his lip, visibly considering what to say. "You're researching how to get my earthbending back, aren't you?"

"You bet I am! Some dumb war with Amestris is hardly going to stop me."

When Al still hesitated, Ed grimaced. "What, you don't want it back now?"

"No!" Al said, too loudly. He gave a hasty, apologetic glance around the library for his outburst. Softer, he continued, "I do! Believe me, Brother, I've never wanted anything more than that. But you can't just neglect-"

Ed scoffed, cutting his brother off neatly. "I've told you before, I don't give a damn about my "duties" as Avatar. Why should a fifteen-year-old kid have the responsibility to stop an entire war? I'm only getting involved because they started this one because of me."

Al frowned but said nothing.

"Stop worrying so much," Ed told him, giving him a good-natured shove on the shoulder. "It's been less than a week. There's no way the Amestrian army could've already gotten mobilized. We have time, and this city has one of the best libraries we've seen."

Al's frown had eased, and Ed knew he was winning. "If you're sure..."

"Of course I'm sure! That's what big brothers are for. Now c'mon, pull up a chair. There's this really interesting theory on how blocked spiritual energy can be restored, but the translation here is a bit tricky - I've been cross-referencing it with a couple of the author's other books to try and figure it out..."

* * *

The smell of smoke woke Ed up first. Then came the screaming.

Ed threw himself out of bed, rubbing sleep out of his eyes and fumbling for the light at the same time. He swore as he accidentally knocked over the lamp, sending it crashing onto the ground. A moment later, the overhead light flickered on.

"Thanks, Al. What's going on?"

Al's blond bedhead was in peak condition and the buttons of the shirt he was hastily buttoning up were misaligned. "I don't know, but it doesn't sound good. You need to get out there, Brother!"

Ed nodded as he jerked his shoes on, hopping gracelessly around on one foot. "I know. Where's my-"

A black shape flew towards his face. Ed caught it on instinct. It was his shirt. He pulled it over his head and mumbled a muffled thanks. He grabbed his bag and slung it over his shoulder. "Alright, let's go!"

"Right behind you."

Ed burst out into the hallway of the hotel they were staying at, Al one pace behind. Albeit still muffled, Ed could make out a cacophony of unwelcome sounds: crashing furniture, screaming women, shouting men. He couldn't make out the roar of fire, but its smoke stung his nostrils. 

Face set and lips tight, Ed glanced back at Al. The Amestrian war on Drachma was already beginning, it seemed. How the hell had they mobilized their army so quickly? Unless, of course, they had just been waiting for an excuse.

They leaped down half the stairs and ran down the rest. The scent of smoke was stronger here. Raised voices reverberated through the walls, one pleading, one demanding. 

"Where is he? We were told a child matching the description I just gave you is in this town."

"I-I don't know, I swear! Just please, please don't burn anything else!"

Ed peeked around the corner. There was fire flickering in the palm of the soldier's hand. Drachman homes were as a rule made out of earth and stone, but that didn't mean the furniture was. Several chairs had charred places, and flames were licking up the side of the front desk. The floor was littered with overturned chairs and shattered picture-frames.

"We are under orders not to leave until the Avatar is found. Tell us where he is, and we'll do a lot less damage than we could."

The soldier's uniform signified him as a low-ranking firebender - a sergeant, or maybe whatever came right after sergeant, as Ed honestly didn't know that much about Amestrian uniforms. They were all just different versions of the same red-and-gold coat and pants, after all.

The innkeeper had her back to Ed. She was barefoot, clad in nothing but a thin nightgown, and trembling. She wasn't much older than thirty. "Please, I already told you-"

"I don't believe you. I'll give you one more chance to tell me the truth before I burn it out of you."

"What the hell do you think you're doing, you bastard!?" 

A chunk of earth slammed the soldier hard into the opposite wall. Ed advanced, glowering, automail arm raised menacingly. 

The soldier sat up, opening his eyes dazedly and attempting to stand back up. "What are you-"

He slammed back into the wall, head snapping sideways from the force of Ed's punch. Ed rolled his shoulder, wincing as one of the gears caught - he'd forgotten to oil them last night and he regretted it now. He approached the man, grabbing him by the front of his uniform. He was satisfied to see a rapidly forming red mark on the man's jaw.

"If you're looking for the Avatar," Ed said, "you've found him. What the hell do you want with me?"

The man spat a mouthful of red-tinted saliva onto the floor next to Ed. He wheezed before he spoke. "We're under orders to find and capture the Avatar and bring him back to Central City."

Central City was the very unoriginally named capital city of Amestris. Ed had been expecting something like this, but he had to make sure. "Whose orders? Who wants me, and what do they want with me?"

"Who knows? I guess you'll have to ask them yourself." 

White-hot bands of pain seared through Ed's wrists. He cried out and released the soldier. He stumbled back and only barely dodged the soldier's next attack, the flames passing by so closely that Ed could feel their heat. The next flames fizzled out on Ed's wall of earth. He sliced it in half and sent both halves flying towards the soldier, who dodged and sent another flame attack. 

Ed ducked and sent the stone mantelpiece towards the soldier. Abruptly he remembered Al and the innkeeper and glanced around frantically. They were nowhere in sight. Good. He looked back at the soldier only to find fire inches from his face.

 _Shit!_ He didn't have time to block it with earthbending. There was too much fire to dodge. He had no idea how to redirect fire. 

Ed threw up his arms just before the fire reached him. It never did. Fine dirt sprayed through the air, extinguishing the fire and stopping it in its tracks. 

The room fell silent, the distant sounds of fighting all that remained. Ed and the soldier just stared at each other for a long moment. The soldier, Ed was pleased to see, looked suitably shocked. He'd probably never seen an earthbender use earth to put out a fire like that. Ed certainly hadn't. 

"How in the world...?"

"What, have you never seen that before?" Ed asked. "All you have to do to stop the combustion process is stop it from getting oxygen. All the dirt did was smother it so that the fire couldn't keep burning. Pretty cool, huh?"

"But it was in mid-air!" The soldier had shifted from looking shocked to looking terrified. 

"Yeah, and you can betcha there's more where that came from, too!" Ed raised his automail arm. "What about it? Or are you gonna go back to your country with your tail tucked between your legs like a coward?"

Before the soldier could respond, there came a rush of footsteps outside the house. A loud, commanding voice called out, "Erik! What's going on in there?"

"I found the Avatar! Get in here!" Erik called back. He turned to Ed, raising his arms to fight. "I'm no match for you one-on-one, but I think even the Avatar would find an entire squadron of firebenders a challenge."

A presence appeared next to Ed. Al, with the innkeeper hovering uncertainly in the doorway a few feet away. Ed barely turned his head to listen, keeping his eyes firmly trained on the soldiers who had begun to stream in. "Brother, we've got to get out of here. You can't take on that many firebenders by yourself, much less defend me and Katia at the same time."

"I know, but how are we supposed to get out? That's the only door, isn't it?" 

"No," the innkeeper, Katia, answered. "There's a back door, but what if they have us surrounded?"

Ed frowned at her, still keeping one eye on the advancing firebenders. "Us? As soon as we leave, you'll be safe."

Katia scoffed. "You know nothing about Amestris, then. We'll be lucky if they don't ransack the entire city. Finding you is just an excuse for destruction."

Ed and Al exchanged a glance and came to an instant decision. "Alright," Ed said, "you're coming with us, at least until we know you'll be safe. Where's the back door?"

"This way. Let's hurry."

The three of them started running. Once they cleared the doorway, Ed turned around and stopped.

"Sorry about this, lady."

Ed stomped his heel into the ground and threw his arms out. A wall of earth shot up and covered first the doorway leading outside, then the doorway they'd just come through, blocking their path and preventing the firebenders from following. He gave a quick glance to ensure it would hold before turning and motioning them on again. 

They reached the back door in a matter of moments. It was shut, locked, and tightly bolted. Ed stuck his ear to the wall and listened as Katia began unbolting the door. He couldn't hear anything, but that meant little. There could very well be an entire squadron of soldiers waiting for them. He hoped that, at the very least, they weren't firebenders.

Katia slid the final lock open and put her hand on the door knob. She glanced at Ed and Al. "What if they're there?"

"I'll give you cover," Ed answered. "Al, you'll keep her safe, right?"

Al nodded. "Of course. Be careful, Ed."

"Always am," he said with a mocking salute. 

Katia opened the door and peeked her head out. After a moment she stuck her head back in and said, "I don't see anything."

"Alright, let's go then." Ed slipped through the door and stood guard as Al and Katia followed behind. 

Now that he was outside, the chaos Ed had heard before was clear and loud. It had died down somewhat in the last few minutes, but Ed knew what burning buildings sounded like very well. He wished with sudden fervor that he knew how to waterbend. All of this destruction was for him, and he didn't even know how to fix it. 

The inn was in the middle of Armavir, placing them at the center of all the confusion. Ed could hear the firebenders at the front of the inn shouting and complaining. They needed to move fast, before the soldiers decided to break the windows and crawl out that way.

Ed turned to face Al and Katia. "Alright. Al and I are heading to Amestris, so we need to cut across town and exit to the south. From the sound of it, they aren't going to be happy if they find us out on the streets. You know what that means, right?"

They nodded.

"On my signal. One...two...three."

Ed darted to a shop behind the inn and to its right, Al and Katia close behind. He slowly edged around it to the front, listening carefully for any signs that another group of soldiers was nearby. As far as he could tell, there wasn't. 

Holding up a hand to tell Al and Katia to stay back, Ed took the last few steps forward to the front of the building and peeked his head out. Nothing. The street was absolutely deserted. He glanced back to Al and Katia and motioned them on. 

In the same manner, they crept through the next several blocks until they were almost to the southern outskirts of Armavir. It wasn't too large of a city, something Ed was both grateful and not grateful for. It made it easier to escape, but he could hear the Amestrian soldiers from the inn coming after them. Most likely they'd told the rest of their division and now the entire troop was looking for him on the streets.

At the next intersection between buildings, Ed crept forward to make sure it was clear - and froze.

There was someone there.

He flattened against the wall of the house, grateful for the fence railing that was eye-level for him (which was only because it was a high porch, not because of any deficiency in Ed's size). When he heard no sounds of alarm from in front of him, he cautiously peeked back out.

There were two people, a man and a woman, both in Amestrian uniforms. The woman's bright hair clashed with the gold trimmings of her uniform. She wore a coat and pants instead of the firebenders' armored plates, but they were surprisingly ornate for a nonbender's uniform. She was also heavily armed: a holstered belt at her thigh held a set of throwing knives, and a slight bulge in her uniform suggested another set hid there. A quiver of crossbow darts sat on her shoulder and in her hands was an already loaded crossbow. Her expression was as flinty and deadly as her choice of weaponry. Ed felt in his soul that he did not want to cross this woman.

The man's uniform marked him her superior even though his boyish face and messy black hair would have suggested otherwise. Ed's eyes widened in dismay when he saw the ornate breastplate and shoulder pads set over the standard coat and pants. The armor alone meant he was a firebender, but the extra gold detailing meant he was at least a lieutenant colonel. Firebenders might enter the military at the rank of sergeant, but it wasn't easy getting past that. Especially not that far past.

The two were talking about something - probably him, Ed thought morosely. The woman's expression was set and determined and she nodded to whatever the man was saying. The man paused and looked towards Ed, eyes searching. Ed inhaled sharply. 

The man turned back to his subordinate, uncrossing his arms as he did so. Ed's eyes caught on the white gloves he wore. That was odd. Ed had worn gloves and long sleeves for awhile after his automail surgery. He'd hated the way people would glance down at his automail limbs and then back up at Ed with such pity, such horror that a child Ed's age had already lost two of his limbs. But Ed had eventually grown past that, and the man didn't move with a stiffness that would suggest recent surgery. 

Ed shrugged and dismissed it as an aesthetic choice. He wouldn't put it past an Amestrian to wear gloves just out of the desire to be extra.

Katia and Al edged up behind him, wanting to see what Ed was seeing. As soon as she saw the two soldiers, Katia gasped.

"What is it?" Al whispered, eyeing the two soldiers to see if they had heard. They hadn't - or at least, gave no indications of such.

"I recognize them. I don't remember the woman's name, but she was one of the heroes of the Air Nomad Genocide." The way Katia spat out the word 'heroes' made it clear what she thought of the term. "The man...he's Colonel Roy Mustang. One of the best firebenders in Amestris, the youngest colonel they've ever had, and he has one the largest kill counts of the war, second only to Major Solf J. Kimblee."

Even Ed and Al shuddered at the name of Kimblee. Everyone knew of him. He was the man that even Drachman children told stories about to scare each other. A known psychopath who was now imprisoned for trying to kill civilians and even his own commanding officer, Kimblee was one of the worst Amestris had to offer. That Mustang was on the same level as him...

"Kimblee was known as the Crimson Fist, but Mustang was known as the Inferno. He never left even a single body behind."

The three of them stared, Katia and Al in fear, Ed in nauseated horror, at the two soldiers. The woman didn't look afraid of Colonel Mustang. Actually, she seemed comfortable around him, at one point even smiling and rolling her eyes when he said something to her. And Mustang himself didn't look cruel. Determined? Definitely. But cruel? Cruel enough to kill hundreds of innocent airbenders and not even leave behind a body to bury? 

"He doesn't look evil," Al said, echoing Ed's thoughts.

"He sure doesn't," Katia said, a little dreamily. She shook herself. "That's definitely him, though. He's a murderer, through and through."

"I always knew those Amestrian soldiers were bastards, especially the officers," Ed muttered. He edged back away from the view and straightened. "Let's get going. We're almost there."

As the three of them crept through the last few blocks, Ed still couldn't get the image of Colonel Mustang out of his head.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And here's Roy! Don't worry, he's not as bad as he seems.  
> Or is he?
> 
> Btw, reviews are always welcome ;)


	3. Chapter 3

Ed had disliked snow ever since he first got automail, but this made it official: he hated snow.

He and Al had left Katia behind at the first city they had found that was Drachman, not currently covered in Amestrian soldiers, and not likely to be covered in Amestrian soldiers anytime soon. As one might think, that had taken awhile - a couple of days, actually, but Katia was a kind lady and Ed would be damned if he couldn't at least save one person from the disaster that had become his life. 

From there, they had set off on their own once more. It was getting increasingly more difficult to find a place to stay the night in with all the skirmishes between Amestrian and Drachman soldiers, and that wasn't even counting for the possibility that Ed could be recognized. Surprisingly, no one Ed or Al had talked to knew anything more about the Avatar than that he was a teenage kid with blond hair. Ed would have expected Colonel Mustang's troops to put out a more accurate description, but if they had, he hadn't heard of it. 

So now here they were, approaching the Drachman-Amestrian border. A freak blizzard had come upon them unawares and they were too far away from any known civilization to turn back. Ed's automail port had frozen to the skin around it and he could feel the frostbite setting in. What little firebending he had was useless in the storm, so Ed could only hope he and Al wouldn't freeze to death. For the second time in as many weeks, Ed fervently wished he knew how to waterbend. At the very least, he could have used it to move the piles of snow he and Al were wading through.

"Are we getting close?" Al asked dazedly, staggering a moment and stopping to regain his breath. Although almost as tall as Ed, he had always been frailer. Ed was also certain that losing his bending had taken an integral part of Al away, making him weaker and more fragile than he had been before. Seeing him like this made Ed's resolve to get Al's bending back stronger than ever.

"We're almost there, Al. Don't worry."

Al's worried gaze ran over the bleak, white landscape. Their surroundings were a swirling white canvas of cold, the only variance juts of rocks and mountains. There was no way to tell which way they were coming from or which way they were going. He was probably thinking the same thing Ed was: they weren't going to make it. They had weathered enough blizzards in Drachma to know which ones were survivable and which ones weren't. This one was bad.

Any other person might have given up right there, but Al didn't. He looked back at Ed and smiled through the thick scarf covering his lower face and kept walking. "Come on, Brother. Last one there buys the other a cup of coffee!"

"You're on," Ed said, and they both trudged onwards.

They continued like that for awhile, one or the other mumbling encouragements to keep moving. The blizzard continued unabated. Ed could feel his strength waning. His ears and nose were burning cold and when he tried to move his fingers, they barely responded. His right shoulder and left leg had gone completely numb. Automail was made of metal and the metal port was fused onto delicate flesh. Growing up, his automail mechanics had always warned him to be careful of the cold, since the metal would lead to exposure very quickly. Now, he was fairly certain he had frostbite. 

"Damn automail," he muttered, too quietly for Al to hear. Ed would have to find a mechanic as soon as possible. It would be just his luck if gangrene set in and he had to get yet more of his limbs amputated and the automail ports readjusted, he thought sourly. 

Beside him, Al staggered. Snow covered him from head to toe such that it was hard to see anything except Al's half-closed eyes. Only a slit of his gold pupils remained, and he swayed on his feet.

"Al!"

Al turned to him and seemed about to speak, but fell. Ed lunged through two feet of snow and grabbed him. Frantically, he checked over Al. His eyes tried to focus, sluggishly, on Ed. He was struggling to stay awake. The cold would put him to sleep soon. And Ed knew that, once it did, Al wouldn't wake back up.

Ed cast his gaze around the freezing whiteness. They should be able to see Briggs, the Amestrian border fortress, soon - they should be close. Briggs was the only way into Amestris from the Drachman side, so they had no choice but to go there. But everywhere he looked, he saw nothing but snow, snow, snow. He could barely see a foot ahead of him. In grim despair, he realized that they could be three feet from Briggs or three miles - he would never know. 

They were going to die, weren't they? And in a blizzard, at that. What a dumb - and, frankly, laughable - way to die. He had grown up being warned about blizzards, being told how to read the sky to forecast them. He had heard all the horror stories of school-children walking home and being caught in blizzards and dying. Out of all the ways to die, Ed would have thought he was above dying in a blizzard. 

He looked down at Al. And - no. No, Al would not die here. He clenched his jaw and made up his mind.

Ed set his heel into the ground. The ground rumbled. Al startled awake, eyes wide, babbling out something Ed didn't hear. Ed clapped his hands and set them down on the snow, feeling for the earth below. It met him, recognizing him, and he coaxed it to life. Like an awakening bear, it shook again, and then suddenly Ed and Al were hurtling into the air.

Al screamed, grabbing onto Ed and yelling something that was snatched up by the wind. He yelled again, and this Ed heard.

"What are you doing!?"

Ed looked around, first at their rapidly passing surroundings and then at the ground far beneath them. To be fair, he could see why Al had been so surprised. Ed had sent them several hundred feet into the air. As they fell, Ed called the earth to catch them, took the kinetic energy of their fall, and converted it into forward momentum. Rather than continually throwing them up into the air, he focused all the energy back into the earth and bent it into an undulating wave, like the movement of a snake's belly. 

"Ed," Al yelled at him again, "what are you doing?"

Ed had never used earthbending in this way. To be honest, he hadn't even known if it would work. But Ed wasn't called a genius for nothing - even for an Avatar, his earthbending was remarkable. "The earth is always moving, and it's all connected with itself."

Al rolled his eyes. He had been just as good an earthbender as Ed before Truth had taken his bending - maybe even better. "I know _that._ How are we moving with it?"

Ed didn't respond for a few seconds, trying to focus. "There's two separate movements of the earth - the one moving forward, and a second one behind us that keeps _us_ moving with the first one."

It certainly wasn't the smoothest of rides. Any variation in the terrain threw Ed's calculations off, forcing him to rapidly adjust every few seconds. Added to that was the difficulty of finding the earth through all the snow that covered it. Ed was rapidly realizing why transportation via earthbending wasn't common: it was extremely difficult and _extremely_ taxing. He had already been exhausted; now he felt light-headed and dizzy.

"That's - that's really advanced bending," Al said worriedly. "You're going to tire yourself out."

Ed grunted. "We don't have a choice, Al. It's this or freeze."

Al fell silent. For a few moments, there was nothing but the howling of the storm. "I'm sorry I can't help."

The words were so quiet, Ed could barely hear them over the wind. But they had had similar conversations often enough that Ed knew exactly what his brother was saying. "Shut up - it's not your fault, there's nothing you can do about it now, and I won't hear otherwise! Just let me get us through these fuckin' eight-feet tall piles of snow, okay?"

"Okay, but you realize you only think they're not actually eight feet tall, you just think they are because-"

"WHO ARE YOU CALLING SO SHORT THEY COULD DROWN IN A SINGLE SNOWFLAKE!?"

"I'm just saying, using your bending like this is only going to exhaust you faster! We have no idea where we are, Brother!"

"There's a reason I threw us up in the air the first time," Ed said. "I got a glimpse of Briggs on the way up - we're moving towards it now. Don't worry, okay? We'll be there soon."

He did have to admit that Al had a point, though. Ed couldn't really feel the cold anymore. Everything was starting to feel warm, warm and comfortable and drowsy.

Ed gritted his teeth and urged the earth to move faster.

"Ed, really, you need to stop," Al pleaded. But the cold was re-staking its claim on him, pulling him back towards sleep. His voice was growing weaker and his eyelids were flickering. He wasn't going to last much longer. Unfortunately, neither was Ed.

"Al, stay awake, you hear?" 

"I..." Al's voice drifted off.

"Alphonse, you hear?"

No response. _Shit._

"Alphonse!" Ed shouted at him, punching his fists into the snow and throwing everything he had into his bending. The earth lurched underneath him like a sports car shifting gears before throwing the two of them forward. "Al, if you don't stay awake now, you're gonna be the one paying for my coffee! I'll even order extra caramel and sugar in it too, just to make it more expensive!" 

Nothing.

"Hell, I'll add three shots of espresso!"

Nothing.

The blizzard abated for a moment. In that moment, Ed desperately looked around, hoping against hope for a sight of Briggs. There! He saw something to his left - a huge wall and an even more massive fortress built into it. He had seen it earlier when he'd launched them into the air - he was almost there now. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't have dreamed of walking up to Briggs given that he was one, Drachman, and two, the Avatar; his initial plan had been to earthbend a tunnel through the pass. But... Al. Al wouldn't survive if Ed bypassed Briggs like that.

He looked at Al again. His eyes were shut and he had fallen onto his side, unconscious. His chest had stopped moving. His eyelids were riddled with frost, and snow had snuck in between the layers of clothing he wore. Ed beheld all that, saw his brother lying there, possibly _dead-_

And suddenly he wasn't Ed anymore.

It felt like falling backwards into an endless ocean while his body continued on without him. There were presences all around him, none of which he recognized and all of which felt familiar. He watched through eyes that no longer felt his as he picked up Al's body and cradled him to his chest. The next instant he was flying towards Fort Briggs.

Something touched him. He jumped and spun around.

An airbender?

"I thought you were all dead," he gasped out. Probably not the best first impression, but then Ed had never been good with first impressions.

It was the first time Ed had ever seen an airbender. This one was male and watched Ed with an amused fondness that would have pissed Ed off under any other circumstances. He was bald and beardless, hairless except for his eyebrows and eyelashes. The tattooed point of a blue arrow ended above his eyes, its other end continuing down his spine. Ed had heard of such tattoos before. Only airbending masters received them.

"Yes and no, young Avatar. Not all of my people are dead, as Amestris would have you believe. I, however, am."

"How the hell do you know I'm the Avatar?" Ed demanded. He glanced back to where he could see Briggs approaching, Al still in his (?) arms. "And what the hell is going on? Am I dreaming? That's _me,_ isn't it? Holding Al?"

"In a way, I suppose you could say that." The airbender studied him for a few seconds, during which Ed did his damndest not to explode. This was an airbender, after all - an airbending master - and Ed didn't think it wise to piss him off. Plus, this was the first time he'd ever spoken to an airbender; maybe Ed could finally get some clues on how to get Al's bending back!

"Edward," the airbender said. It was strange, the way he said it, like he knew Ed. "Do you not know who I am?"

Ed opened his mouth for an indignant rebuttal, then shut it. Strangely, he realized that he _did_ know this airbender. He knew with utmost certainty that he had never met this man, yet he knew with equal certainty that he had always known him.

And then he got it. It was the only thing that made sense. Here was an airbender who admitted he was dead, an airbender who knew both Ed's name _and_ that he was the Avatar. That could only mean one thing.

"You're one of my past lives."

The airbender dipped his head. "Indeed. I am Avatar Gao Jin. I was the Avatar two lives before you, before Amestris began their genocide of my people. It seems we are always doomed to destruction for our refusal to destroy others."

Ed blinked. "This has happened before?"

"Once, a long time ago, back when the world was composed of only four nations. An aggressive nation full of firebenders waged war on the airbenders, rendering them almost extinct." Gao Jin sighed. "History repeats itself."

Ed took that in, then looked back to where his body, still holding Al, was nearing Fort Briggs. "What happened? I looked down at Al and suddenly I just...wasn't there anymore."

"You entered the Avatar State. It is a defense mechanism designed to empower you with the knowledge and skills of all your past lives. Until you gain full control over it, you will sometimes enter it unintentionally when under great amounts of stress or in great danger."

Ed frowned. "Then I need to learn how to control it now! I can't just lose control of my body randomly."

Gao Jin chuckled. "You won't normally lose control of your body in the Avatar State. Since this was your first time, your predecessor took control so I could speak to you. She will make sure you and Al are safe. You are the first Avatar in generations to know so little about being the Avatar, so I wanted to talk to you personally. You don't make a habit of meditating, I assume?"

"Meditating is for old people," Ed scoffed.

"Meditating is the best way to become attuned to your past selves and your current powers," Gao Jin corrected, gently but firmly. "I know you have reservations about being the Avatar-"

"Damn right," Ed huffed.

Gao Jin looked at him. "I know you have reservations about being the Avatar," he continued pointedly, "but it is foolish to think you can simply ignore what you were born to be. At the very least, you must learn to use and control your powers. If you are killed in the Avatar State, the reincarnation cycle will be broken and the Avatar will cease to exist."

Ed drew in a breath. Well, shit. Just because he didn't want to be the Avatar himself didn't mean he wanted to end the Avatar cycle forever. "How do I do that? I've been researching chakras and bending for years now and I've never seen anything about the Avatar State."

"You already know the first step. You must master all four elements." Gao Jin gave him an approving look. "You are already a master of earth. Even in my prime, I'm not sure if I was as good as you are now. It's a good thing earth was my worst element!" 

He laughed, but Ed looked at him, surprised. "You're telling me I'm not going to have equal control over all of the elements?"

"Most likely not. For me, I am nearly equal at bending air and water, then fire, and worst at earth. There have been a rare few who have achieved total balance - Minerva, for one, and Wan, but of course Wan would." 

"Wait - Minerva? Wan? Who're they?"

Gao Jin looked startled. Ed didn't know him very well, but he felt that that was not a normal thing. "I can understand not knowing Minerva, but you don't know Avatar Wan?"

"Well," said Ed testily, "I might know, if you'd just tell me!"

Gao Jin gave him a look. "Avatar Wan was the first Avatar. He bonded with the spirit that became the Avatar spirit, which allows us to reincarnate. Now, back to what's important - your body is nearing your destination. We don't have much more time."

Ed glanced over to see that Gao Jin was right: Fort Briggs was looming nearer and nearer. Ed was starting to feel lightheaded again. He bet that meant he was about to return to his body.

"You need to master the elements, quickly. Without mastery over the elements, you will never become a fully realized Avatar, and you won't be able to control the Avatar State or defeat the Amestrian Fuhrer. You must also find the remaining airbenders. Without them, you will never learn what it is to be an Avatar."

"How?" Ed demanded. "You're supposed to be extinct!"

"Amestris was foolish to think they could ever fully wipe out a nomadic people. My people exist still - in fact, you have already met one of them."

He had already met an airbender? Who could that have been? He wondered if maybe it could have been that weird-looking guy who had come to Sig and Izumi's shop, but discarded the idea. Then he realized.

"Do you mean Katia, the innkeeper? I thought there was something a little strange about her - I mean, who's willing to just skip town like that, unless they're wanted themselves, right? Shit, should we not have left her? Should we go back?"

Gao Jin shook his head. "Your airbending master will come to you when you are ready, and going back to Drachma now would be delivering yourself up to the Amestrian forces."

Ed was growing dizzy. He was starting to feel the cold again, but he clung onto Gao Jin and his consciousness with everything he had. "My predecessor is bringing me to Briggs right now! How's that not delivering myself up to Amestrian forces!"

"Do not worry, Edward. You will be safe at Briggs."

"Hang on, you can't just say that and-"

He came back into himself with a jerk to find himself freezing cold, lugging Al's limp body, and surrounded by Amestrian soldiers who had definitely just seen him in the Avatar State.

Well, shit.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Since I've basically made ATLA canon to this story, albeit years earlier, does anyone want Aang or Korra (or any of the old Avatars, like Kyoshi, Roku, Yangchen, or Wan) to make an appearance?


	4. Chapter 4

"Sir, we found this boy on the Drachman side of Briggs, carrying what appears to be a dead body."

"AL IS NOT DEAD, YOU BASTARD! YOU BETTER BE GIVING HIM THE BEST MEDICAL CARE YOU HAVE TO OFFER, OR I'LL TEAR YOUR-"

"Thank you, Miles. Dismissed."

General Olivier Armstrong, known to Drachmans and Amestrians alike as the Northern Wall of Briggs, was a formidable woman. When the soldiers who had surrounded Ed had handcuffed him and brought him to see her, he definitely hadn't been expecting the general of Briggs to be a nonbender. But the uniform was unmistakable: no breastplate, no armor, just the standard-issue red coat and pants, albeit more highly decorated than anyone else's he'd ever seen. 

She surveyed him now from her seat with a gaze as ice-cold and deadly as the whirling blizzard outside. Surprisingly young - mid 30s, if Ed had to guess - Armstrong wore her blond hair long, not bothering to tie it up as most female soldiers would. Despite being seated with her ornate sword sheathed by her side, Ed knew that if he tried anything she'd have him dead before he could even enter the Avatar State. 

"Tell me, what is your name?"

"Edward Elric."

"My men reported a glowing figure flying through the air and landing in front of my fort. They claim this figure was you. Is that true, boy?"

Ed gulped. This was really bad. He frantically tried to think through a lie.

As though reading his mind, Armstrong leaned forward. Her grip tightened on the handle of her sword. "And don't lie to me. Even if you don't care for your life, your display earlier shows you care for the life of your Al."

"Are you threatening me!?" Ed asked, trying for furious but falling far short. He was terrified and trying his very hardest not to show it. He was the fifteen-year-old Avatar, still half-frozen and probably frostbitten at his automail ports, and he was now inside the largest fortress in Amestris, defenseless, with Al possibly dead or dying. 

"I don't make threats. I make promises."

Ed swallowed again, this time audibly. Armstrong raised an eyebrow at him, as if to say _well?_

"I, um...don't exactly remember."

"I see." Armstrong watched him for another moment. "Hypothetically speaking, if there were a figure like my men reported who could both glow and fly through the air, would that figure happen to be the Avatar?"

"I..." Ed's heart was pounding. He didn't see any way out of this. His hands were tied behind his back and both automail limbs were throbbing with pain. He was in no shape to fight, especially not a general of the Amestrian army. Especially once she called in her soldiers.

"Bear in mind," Armstrong added after Ed failed to respond, "that your Al's continued survival is as hypothetical as my question, should you not answer it to my satisfaction."

Ed's hands clenched into fists. It was an effort to remain calm. "Hypothetically speaking, I would hardly know what the Avatar looks like. Sir."

"And that is your answer?"

"It is."

"Very well, then. Miles!"

The door opened and the soldier from before came in. Ed hadn't had the chance to look before, but he realized now that Miles was another high-ranking nonbender. He had thought that nonbenders struggled to move through the ranks; had he been mislead? Or were these two just abnormally talented?

Miles came to attention. "Sir. Your orders?"

"Take the other boy, Al, and throw him outside. Let him live or die on his own merit."

"No!" Ed shouted, surging to his feet. "No, you can't! You bastards, he'll die!"

"I warned you what the consequences of lying to me were," Armstrong said coldly. 

"I wasn't lying," Ed said desperately. "I don't know what the Avatar looks like." 

Armstrong stared at him, unmoving. Beside Ed, Miles hadn't moved either. They clearly didn't believe him. Ed released a long, defeated breath and closed his eyes. Some help his past lives had been, taking him here and leaving him to the dogs. It seemed he had no other choice. He couldn't let Al die.

"After all," he said quietly, "I don't exactly know how I look, do I?"

"You are the Avatar?" Armstrong asked calmly.

"Damn you and all you Amestrian bastards!" Ed snapped. "Yes, I'm the Avatar! How fucking clear do I have to be!?" 

Armstrong turned to her subordinate. "Miles, make sure Al receives the best medical treatment available. I do not want to hear that he suffers any adverse affects."

Miles snapped to salute. "Yes, sir."

The door clicked shut. Armstrong turned back to Ed. "As for you, Avatar, what do you want with Amestris?"

* * *

"What do I want with Amestris?" Ed repeated, staring at Armstrong in confusion.

"Must I repeat myself, boy? My men found you on the Drachman side of Briggs trying to cross over into Amestris. You'd have to be an idiot not to know that you are a highly wanted criminal in Amestris, and you're either a fool or desperate to travel here, alone, in the middle of a blizzard."

Ed hesitated. He couldn't make Armstrong out. She had sent Miles to tend to Al as soon as Ed had admitted to being the Avatar. More than that, she hadn't immediately sent Ed off to Central City in chains. Was she hoping to wring more information out of him by playing nice? If so, she could get it over his dead body.

"I'd rather die than tell you Amestrian bastards anything."

"So are we your enemies, then?" 

"Of course you are!" Ed snapped. "You started a war with my entire country just because of me!"

"My leader started a war with your country, that is true. But does that mean you will start a war with my country?"

Something about her wording seemed strange. Ed stared at her, trying to make it out. Finally, he said, "I don't want a war - any war. If it were up to me, I'd stay as far away from you all as possible."

"So it isn't up to you, then?" Armstrong said. "Otherwise, you would hardly go willingly into a country whose citizens would capture you on sight."

Why was she asking these questions? Wouldn't a normal general want to know about Ed's Avatar abilities, how to incapacitate him, or if he had any allies that were coming after him? Armstrong hadn't asked any of those. 

"Do you generals normally debate philosophy with your captives?" Ed asked snidely.

He could've sworn one corner of Armstrong's mouth turned up. "No, but I take my duty to my country seriously. I will not let in anyone who threatens my country, even if it is the Avatar himself."

Wait. "So does that mean you _would_ let me in if I didn't threaten your country?"

Armstrong stood. Ed cowered back automatically, but she turned and strode towards her back wall. Several maps and other documents hung there, stuck to the wall with pins. She pointed to one of them without turning around to Ed. "What do you see here, Avatar?"

Ed stood and took a few cautious steps forward, squinting to make out the object. It was a photo, he realized, and a fairly old one at that. It seemed to be some sort of formal ceremony. Two people stood next to each other on a stage, behind a podium. Hundreds of thousands of people surrounded the stage. The person to the right was dressed in the red-and-gold uniform Ed knew belonged to the Fuhrer, but he was clearly not the current Fuhrer - he was older, for one, and far kinder looking.

"Is that your previous Fuhrer?"

"Yes. Do you know who that is, standing next to him?"

Ed took another step. Next to the Fuhrer was another man. While the Fuhrer was dressed in reds and golds, this man was dressed in orange and yellow. He was bald with serious eyes. His wrists and the top of his forehead all had blue arrows tattooed on them. He was younger than Ed was used to, but still Ed recognized him instantly. 

"It's Avatar Gao Jin, the Avatar two lives before me. But I thought..."

"Our previous Fuhrer ruled Amestris peacefully and well, according to my father who served under him. He said that Amestris was more prosperous than it had been in a hundred years, and that it was all because our Fuhrer ruled in accordance to the Avatar's wishes. Our current Fuhrer has forsaken the Avatar. He killed Avatar Gao in his old age and killed the next Avatar soon after, a mere child. Now he seeks to kill you, as well."

Armstrong turned to face Ed. Up close, her intensity was so strong Ed nearly stepped back. "I have sworn to serve my country until the day I die, and I will. History has shown me that I will not serve Amestris by killing the Avatar, nor will I serve her by turning you over to be killed. However, I will not allow an enemy of Amestris past Briggs. So I will ask you once more time. What are your intentions for Amestris?"

Ed's thoughts whirred. It took several seconds to get them under control. He finally said, slowly, "I just want to get my brother's earthbending back and end the war your Fuhrer started. Believe me, if I could avoid fighting, I would."

Armstrong examined him. She nodded. "Very well, then. You will stay here until the blizzard subsides, and then you will continue on into Amestris. Until then, you will work."

"Thank- wait, work!?" 

She glared at him. "Yes, work. You are part of Briggs for the time being, and I don't allow layabouts. As long as you are here, you will work or you will not eat. If you thought your status as Avatar would earn you special treatment, you are sorely mistaken. Am I understood?"

Ed grimaced. "Understood," he said reluctantly. 

"Good. Report to Major Miles immediately and he will assign you your tasks."

Ed turned to leave. Before he got to the door, he paused and turned back. "General, what about Al?"

"I assume you will not leave Briggs without him?" 

"Never."

"As I thought. He will leave with you, once he's recovered."

Ed turned to leave again, and once more stopped. He wasn't sure if it was her certainty that Al would recover or her kindness in telling Miles to give Al the best medical treatment they had. But he looked back and said, "For an Amestrian general, you actually aren't too bad, I guess."

"And for an undersized weakling of an Avatar, you are tolerable."

"UNDERSIZED!?"

Armstrong turned back to her desk. "Dismissed. Go report to Major Miles, Avatar."

Fuming, Ed snapped the most mocking salute he could muster and did just that.

* * *

Major Miles was another person who, under normal circumstances, Ed thought he would have liked. He was entirely different-looking from any Amestrian or even Drachman Ed had ever seen. His darkly-tanned skin stood out from the snow-pale Amestrians and Drachmans, as did his stark, white hair. Ed wasn't sure if that was simply a feature of his ethnicity or a fashion statement, for Miles definitely wasn't old enough for it otherwise. To top it all off, Miles perpetually wore a pair of dark glasses that completely covered his eyes. 

So, Miles was definitely odd - even if, Ed allowed, the white hair _wasn't_ a fashion statement - but Ed still liked him. He accompanied Ed to his first task and gave him pointers on how best to do it, and Ed even managed to wrangle a promise of an extra food ration out of him. Also, he promised to personally take Ed to visit Al once they were finished with the day's work. 

As the two of them chipped away at the icicles forming on the outer walls of Briggs, Ed glanced around at his fellow workers. Other than an occasional glance at the newcomer, none of them seemed to care much about him. The oddity wore away at him until he mustered the courage to say, "Hey, Major?"

"What is it?"

"How come none of your men are looking at me? Don't they know that I'm, well..."

"The General and I are the only two people to know of your true identity, Elric. Some of the men may suspect something given your unorthodox entrance, but if they know what's good for them, they'll let their suspicions remain just that."

Ed stopped work long enough to gape at him. "But wouldn't you want to tell them? I mean, you could all get in danger because of me!"

"Briggs is a long way off from Central Command, and the only way they would know to come here is if they were informed. Keeping your identity known to as few as possible is the best way to protect our men."

Ed took that in. It made sense, he guessed, but not as much as he would've liked. He tried his next question. "And you're okay with your own general disobeying your leader like that?"

It definitely wasn't a wise question to ask, given Ed's current situation, but Ed had never really been known for his wisdom. In any case, Miles didn't seem offended. "All of us here at Briggs have our own secrets to hide, and the General knows most of them and cares about none of them. In her eyes, the only thing that matters is protecting Amestris. If you can benefit Amestris, you can live here. That's all. I don't see any reason why that shouldn't also extend to you."

"You have your own secrets as well?"

"I do." Miles lowered the ice pick he'd been using to scrape off icicles. "However, I'm more interested in yours right now. You're favoring your left arm."

Ed jumped and resisted the urge to clutch his right arm protectively. "F-favoring? You're going crazy in your old age, geezer!"

"Just because I have white hair does not mean I'm old." Miles walked towards him, scanning him. "You're limping, too."

"I am not!"

"I saw your arm when the guards took you and Al in. You have automail, right? You need to get your port checked for frostbite."

Having lived his whole life in Drachma, where most winters were as bad as they were at Briggs, Ed knew Miles was right. He scuffed the ground with his automail toe and instantly regretted it, as the vibration resounded all the way up to his port and the sensitive, frost-bitten skin it was attached to.

"Shit!" he hissed. His shoulders slumped. "I'm surprised you said anything. General didn't seem to care."

"You had your hands cuffed behind your back when you went to see her. I doubt she even knows you have automail. Not a common thing for a child, after all."

"'m not a fucking kid," Ed muttered rebelliously.

"No," Miles said, "but you're not an adult yet, either. Which is why I'm telling you to go get that checked out now. I'm the General's second-in-command. No one'll give you grief for it if you tell them I sent you."

Ed glared. "It's not like I'm worried about what other people think of me."

Miles snorted. "Could've fooled me."

Before Ed could yell at him, he set an arm around Ed and turned him in the direction to head back inside Briggs. "Go on now. You should be happy - you're getting off work early _and_ you can see your brother. I'm sure he's still in the infirmary."

Well, when Miles said it like that...

Ed fumbled a salute and hobbled off to the infirmary as fast as he could. He paused right in the doorway to go back in and called out a hasty, "Bye Major!" and then was gone.

Minutes later, he was at the infirmary. "Al!"

His leg and arm were burning and his head was pounding from the effort it took to keep standing. He glanced around rapidly - beds, medical equipment, two doctors. "Where's Al?"

One of the two doctors, a woman with short hair and a clipboard, came over. "Are you Edward Elric?"

"Yeah. Where's Al? My brother, Alphonse?"

She motioned with her head to a nearby bed. "He's asleep right now. It's good that you got him to us when you did. Frostbite had started to set in on his extremities. We managed to stop it and he should be fine once he gets a day or two of rest."

Ed's shoulders relaxed but he pushed forward towards the bed, unable to fully relax until he saw his brother for himself. 

Al was asleep like the doctor had said. He had been changed into dry clothes and was bundled up in layers of blankets. His hands and feet stuck out of the blankets and were wrapped in warm, damp towels. His nose and ears were similarly treated. His chest rose and fell peacefully and what Ed could see of his face was tranquil.

All of his tension dropped out of his body at once and he almost collapsed into a nearby chair. Al was okay. Ed was okay. Neither of them were going to die or be turned over to the authorities. Ed buried his face into his hands and started laughing. 

After a few moments he straightened and looked around the room to see the female doctor and the other, male, doctor staring at him. He flushed and blurted out, "It's been a long day!"

"We weren't judging you," the female doctor said. "Were you just here to see Alphonse? I can't help but notice your right arm is automail. Did you come here to get that checked out?"

Ed nodded. "I, uh, you wouldn't happen to have an automail mechanic here, wouldya?" 

"As a matter of fact," said male doctor, "I am."

He stepped forward, bowing in the weird-ass way Amestrians did - with their straight hand _above_ the fisted one instead of beside. Ed guessed it was supposed to look like a flame, but he still thought it weird. 

"Neil, at your service. I'm guessing you've gotten frostbite from your port?"

Neil had red-brown hair and a persona that Ed liked instantly. Ed nodded at him and started taking off his coat. "Yeah, from both of 'em, I think. My left leg's automail, too. The ports have been burning for awhile now, but your tyrant of a general made me pick off the fucking icicles."

"If you'd told her you had automail, she would've let you come to me. Exposure's a pretty common thing around here, especially with automail. People in Briggs know not to mess around with it."

Ed threw his coat carelessly to the ground and went for his long-sleeved shirt next, toeing off his boots as he did so. Once he'd gotten down to just his pants, Neil came forward to inspect his limbs. He pressed gently on the flesh surrounding the ports. Ed hissed.

"Several places are starting to turn white and the skin there isn't as soft as the rest of your skin. I'm not sure if that's just the scar tissue or not. You have surprisingly little, especially considering..." He didn't elaborate, but Ed knew what he was thinking. The surgeries one had to undergo for automail were extensive and extraordinarily painful. It was especially bad for younger people, because the ports needed to be adjusted as the patients grew. Ed had had to travel to his automail mechanic twice a year for readjustments. Since his mechanic was in Amestris, that had made it a pain in the butt. 

However, the way that Ed had first lost his limbs had severed them so cleanly that it had made very little scarring. That was the one plus about having two limbs torn off by the asshole spirit of Truth, Ed thought sourly.

Neil was prodding at the flesh around the port on Ed's leg now. Whereas Ed had lost his entire right arm from the shoulder down, he had only lost from mid-thigh down on his left leg. That had made the surgery for his leg, and the rehabilitation of it, much easier, since his hip was still his. 

"Can you still feel my touch?" Neil asked.

Ed gave an affirmative. The mechanic seemed relieved. "Living up in Drachma, I'm sure you know the dangers of exposure. You were lucky this time; it's not much worse than your brother's. How are your other extremities - your nose, ears, flesh hand and foot?"

Ed had felt them start to go numb during the blizzard, but going into the Avatar State seemed to have warmed them back up. He wasn't about to say that, though, so he just told Neil that they seemed fine. He tolerated the man's questions about the make and model of his automail, and the other doctor's treatments and let them put him in a bed next to Al.

Wrapped up in blankets with a heating pad on his shoulder and knee, Ed watched the gentle rise and fall of his brother's breathing until it lulled him to sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope y'all liked my take on Olivier Armstrong. I've always been curious about what she would've done, had she been conscripted in the Ishvalan War. She was busy guarding Briggs at the time so she was left out of it, but what if she hadn't been? Alex refused to keep fighting after a certain point, and as much as she calls him weak, she's also pretty honorable. I don't think she would've liked slaughtering civilians. As a general, I feel she might've even allowed her troops to cease fire on the Ishvalans or something. 
> 
> Anyway, you'll get some more Olivier next chapter. Also some more of MY (and probably a lot of yours) favorite character - brownie points to whoever can guess who that is lmao.


	5. Chapter 5

The blizzard lasted four more days. Ed glared at it from inside each day until finally, midway through hauling a stack of equipment up three floors, he looked out at a passing window and saw it had subsided. That night, General Armstrong gave them her approval for them to leave Briggs the next day.

The next morning, Ed finished up his last few tasks quickly and went to find Al. He had made a full recovery by now and was in the middle of one of the myriad of menial tasks Miles had set for them to do. Ed was morally against such tasks since he was 1) a child and 2) the Avatar, but Ed had grudgingly completed every one that had been given him. Al had completed all of his as well, albeit much more readily. 

"How's that going?" Ed asked, tilting his head towards the floor Al was currently mopping. "You want a hand with it? I've got one to spare."

"Really, don't you think that joke has gotten old by now?" Al leveled him with an unamused look. After a few seconds, it cracked and both of them laughed. "Seriously, it's not funny!"

"Why are you laughing, then?"

"Because - I don't know!" Al huffed. He straightened up from his mop. "I'm about done here. It's lunchtime, right? The General said we could leave after lunch."

Ed's stomach grumbled, answering the question. "You bet it is! Let's go get some. Warren gave me an extra dessert voucher and I can't wait to cash it in."

Al shook his head as he went to put the mop up. "I can't believe you keep manipulating all these soldiers out of their own food."

"It's not manipulating if they give it of their own free will," Ed argued. They started walking towards the mess hall. "I'm not lying to them, either. My automail takes a lot of energy to keep going, and I'm a growing boy!"

"Well I am too, but you don't see _me_ begging for more food," Al said primly.

"Hey, your loss."

The next few minutes were passed mostly in silence, broken by Ed or Al's greetings to several of the soldiers they passed by. Once they were close to the mess hall, Al spoke to Ed. "I was thinking, Brother, shouldn't we visit the Rockbells while we're in Amestris?"

The Rockbells were old family friends of Ed and Al's. Ed, Al, and Winry Rockbell had grown up together in Amestris. Then the bastard that was Ed and Al's father had ditched them and their mom, Tricia Elric, had taken Ed and Al with her back to Drachma, where she'd lived much of her life. Tricia had died shortly after and Ed had lost his limbs trying to get her back, while Al had lost his earthbending. Winry and Pinako, her grandmother, had been the ones to give Ed his automail, and he had grown used to making biannual trips to them to get his automail tuned up. 

"I dunno Al, we don't want to put them in danger. Mustang's men must've put up a description of me by now."

"That's true." Al deflated. He hated endangering others just as much as Ed did - possibly even more, because Ed had always thought that Al was far kinder than he. Really, his little brother was better than Ed in pretty much every way, and Ed was happy it was so. Al deserved the world, or at the very least his bending.

The aroma of food hit Ed full in the face as they entered the mess hall. He breathed in deeply, letting out a content sigh. "Ah...I wonder if they'll have more of that potato dish today - what was it called, Al?"

"Um, I think it was a kartoffel-something."

"Wow, thanks, Al, super helpful. Not like 'kartoffel' isn't literally just the Amestrian word for potato or anything..." Ed grumbled. Every country had their own language, but over time a common dialect had become more and more used. Ed knew some Amestrian and a few words of Xingese, but he was only fluent in Drachman and Common. This had become somewhat of a problem now that they were in Amestris, as Amestrians spoke their own language far more than Common. Ed at least knew basic grammar, but his vocabulary was years out of date. He'd have to get better at Amestrian if he was going to survive long in Amestris.

"I was younger than you were when we left Amestris," Al reminded him. "It's not like I remember much about here."

The two of them were about halfway to the meal table at the other side of the mess hall. Ed lifted a hand in greeting to one of the nearby soldiers. His eyes ran by the woman and over to the table behind her. "Yeah, I always forget you don't-"

"Ed? What's-" 

Al froze as well and the two of them gaped in wide-eyed horror at Colonel Roy Mustang.

The next instant, they turned tail and ran.

"Do you think he saw us?" Al hissed as they bolted down the hallway.

"I don't know! He wasn't looking in our direction, but what if he saw us leave?"

"Oh man, what are we going to do?"

"What's the matter with you?" A loud, commanding voice echoed through the hallway from behind them. Ed and Al stopped and slowly turned to face General Armstrong. She was glaring at them, one hand threateningly placed on the hilt of her sword. "I demand to know why the two of you are disturbing the peace of my fortress."

Ed glanced behind her. He didn't see the Colonel, but that didn't mean anything. He looked back at her, glaring in his turn. "You didn't tell us Colonel Mustang would be here!"

"Mustang? _He's_ why you're worried?" Armstrong laughed. "That overly ambitious little cinder couldn't lay his hands on you if he tried! I'd be far more worried about his lieutenant, Hawkeye."

"His lieutenant? Is that the scary lady with the blonde hair?" Al asked.

"And lots of knives?" Ed added, nervously.

"Yes, that's the one." Armstrong's eyes narrowed and she advanced on them. "Were you running away from them?"

"Uh..."

"What kind of _weak, spineless, pathetic cowards_ are you? If you run from the presence of those two, how are you ever going to face up in battle against our leader? Are you the Avatar or not!?"

"H-hey, maybe calm it down a little," Ed said nervously, eyes frantically scanning the halls behind her. "People might hear you-"

"Let them! Maybe it will teach you to grow up and learn your proper duties! How do you think you can be of any service to the world in the state you are now?"

"My life hasn't exactly been easy, you know!"

"So what? Neither has mine, or any other soldier here at Briggs! You will go back into the mess hall and show Mustang and Hawkeye exactly who you are!"

Ed felt his blood slowly drain out of his face. 

Then Armstrong sighed. "At least, that's what I would like to tell you. Practically speaking, however, you don't have time to recover from whatever injuries you'd sustain from a fight with Mustang, and I would also rather not wait another ten years on the chance that you do die."

"Wait, what!?"

"So," she continued as though Ed hadn't even spoken, "I will have Buccaneer get you outside once Mustang and his men are distracted. It's just him and his special unit, so they should all be in the mess hall right now. They just showed up at Briggs ten minutes ago. I had just sent someone to tell you when you came running down the hall. You should avoid North City as much as you can; it will be crawling with soldiers. Make for the nearby town of Reutlin instead. From there you will be able to plan the rest of your journey without interference."

Ed nodded, although privately he wished she would have had Miles help them instead of Buccaneer. Captain Buccaneer was lower rank than Miles, but he was almost as scary as the general herself. "Alright."

"Go back to your rooms and gather your things. I will distract Mustang and his team. And Elric?"

"Yes sir?"

She regarded him for a moment. "You had better be the very best firebender in Amestris by the end of the month, do you hear?"

Ed gulped. "Y-yes sir!"

* * *

Olivier stalked in the mess hall, boots clicking against the floor, blonde hair swishing around her shoulders. Her men fell silent upon seeing her, most likely expecting her to make an announcement. Although she ate in the mess hall with her men - as all officers should, in her opinion - she did not usually take lunch, seeing it as a waste of time. Therefore, her presence in the mess hall during lunch was unusual and thus noteworthy.

She ignored all of her soldiers' questioning gazes to instead advance upon Mustang's table. Like she'd expected, Mustang and all of his men were seated together. A wise move - there was strength in numbers. Mustang was a sycophant and soft, but he was not an idiot. He wasn't the youngest person to ever be a colonel for nothing.

Of course, she wasn't the youngest person ever to be a general for nothing, either.

As she reached his table, Mustang looked up and graced her with one of his smirks she detested. He was, unfortunately, attractive, and that particular smirk said that he knew it. Mustang had not quite achieved the reputation of playboy - he wasn't the type for flings and he definitely wasn't a heartbreaker - but he was most definitely a flirt. "Come to see me again so soon, General? It must be important. I know you're a busy woman."

"Damn right I am," she responded, taking a moment to look around the table. First Lieutenant Riza Hawkeye was seated at his right, as usual. She was, in Olivier's opinion, the only capable soldier in Mustang's team and one of the only capable soldiers in all of Eastern Command, where Mustang was normally stationed. Hawkeye met Olivier's gaze with neutral wariness, ready to protect Mustang with her life at any moment should Olivier threaten him.

To her right was Master Sergeant Kain Fuery - a weakling and a pansy if she'd ever seen one. To Mustang's left sat Second Lieutenants Jean Havoc and Heymans Breda and the last member of his team, Warrant Officer Vato Falman. All of them were nonbenders except for Havoc. He was the only firebender on the team other than Mustang. For a high-ranking officer to build a unit up of almost entirely nonbenders had been unheard of, and it was one of the few things Mustang had done that Olivier respected him for.

She didn't have much respect for the unit itself though, other than Hawkeye. Perhaps a bit of grudging respect for Second Lieutenant Breda - the man had one of the best minds for strategy she'd ever seen - but that was it.

Remarks about her collective disdain for everyone except for Hawkeye and Breda aside, it was good that all of his team were accounted for. Now she simply needed to keep them busy long enough for the Elrics to slip out. 

"Well, General, out with it. Don't keep me in suspense."

"Very well." Olivier crossed her arms. "I neglected to ask you this before when you came in from Drachma, unannounced and without the entire regiment you came through here with last week-" Mustang winced "-but why, exactly, are you returning to Amestris now? I was of the understanding that your orders were to find and retrieve the Avatar."

Mustang set his fork down on his plate and sized her up carefully. One of the reasons he'd advanced as far as he had through the ranks - besides his willingness to prostrate himself before higher-ups - was his impeccable ability to accurately read others around him. It was another reason she disliked him. Being around someone like him was dangerous. 

"They were. However, I received word that the Avatar was seen heading down this way. Logically speaking, that means he would have attempted to cross over the border here." Mustang tilted his head. "So I must ask, General, that if you know anything about this, you would tell me so at once."

Olivier thought quickly. She knew that Mustang wasn't the heartless psychopath he was popularly believed to be, but exactly how far he was not was still to be determined. In an effort to buy time, she said, "Is capturing the Avatar of such importance to you that you would abandon your men on the off chance that he had come down here?"

"I left my men in capable hands, General. Not to worry. But yes. I am very zealous to ensure that the Avatar does not fall into the wrong hands."

The two of them locked eyes. Mustang's jet-black eyes were hard with determination and uncompromising. He stared at her, unblinking, for a long moment. Then suddenly he broke eye contact and laughed. "Look at us posturing like wild bulls. I'm sure that if you had captured the Avatar, you'd feel the same way about keeping him from the wrong people. Isn't that right?"

 _What is he trying to say?_ "I will always do whatever is necessary for the protection and prosperity of Amestris, Colonel."

For some reason, that made Mustang smile. "Then we are agreed. I know my methods are sometimes...unorthodox, but I believe that unorthodox methods are sometimes, as you put it, 'necessary' to help Amestris become everything she is meant to be. And there are times when certain people can aid that process, wouldn't you agree?"

"As long as such people are not a threat to my country, I would let them help her in whatever way they see fit."

Mustang nodded. "Very good. I'm glad we could come to an understanding, General. On a lighter note, I seem to be having trouble deciding where to go next. Perhaps you have some suggestions?"

Olivier considered him for a long moment. She didn't believe he was a bloodthirsty man, nor one manipulative enough to fake such a conversation, veiled as it had been. But if she were wrong, she'd be setting an entire military unit on the Elrics' tail. The majority of Mustang's unit might not be combat-trained, but Havoc was a capable firebender and Hawkeye could hold her own with her knives. Not to mention, Mustang himself could probably slaughter the two Elrics in his sleep. As stupid as Olivier thought most public-given titles ('Northern Wall of Briggs'? Really?) were, 'Inferno' did fit Mustang quite well. He was one of the best firebenders in the country, second only to the Fuhrer. And, she supposed, Kimblee, if one were to count Kimblee. She would rather forget his existence, personally.

Seeing her hesitation, Mustang tried again.

"I know what many people think of me," he said quietly. "That I'm a cold-blooded killer, a sadist who'd murder a baby as soon as hold it. But listen. I'm not Kimblee. You _know_ I'm not Kimblee. I've made mistakes, and lots of them, but I would never do what he did."

There had been children among the Air Nomads. Olivier's own brother, Alex Armstrong, had refused to kill one of them and had been court-martialed for it. Mustang had reportedly never shrunk from such things. Nor had he ever shrunk from any order given him by the government. Olivier had never had cause to doubt his loyalty to the Fuhrer.

Olivier opened her mouth to lie when she happened to glance at Hawkeye. She had always liked the woman, always sensed in her a kindred soul. Hawkeye was giving her the exact same look as Mustang: desperate, pleading, determined.

"General," she said, "we've made mistakes we'll never be able to repay. But that doesn't mean we can't try. We ask that you'd let us."

"'Mistake' is a nice term for government-sanctioned genocide," Olivier said. It was a bold statement, identifying her as a military dissident. She knew it was risky, but she outranked Mustang and the Fuhrer needed a general to man Briggs. It would take more than one impolitic statement to get her ousted. "I'm sure you know how I feel about cowards, and there is little more cowardly than massacring unarmed civilians."

Mustang lowered his head. "I know."

She eyed him, a little surprised. She knew he wasn't proud of what he'd done - not like Kimblee - but she'd expected him to make excuses, or at least to say it was a necessary evil. 

"I'm not here to make excuses. There are none. The only thing I'm asking for here is the chance to make it right. You know as well as I do that the Avatar is our best chance at changing our current government. Am I wrong in saying you want to see that happen as well?"

Olivier released a slow breath. If she chose wrong here, she'd be damning not just herself, but the Avatar and their best chance at returning peace and prosperity to the world. It would be much safer to simply refuse Mustang outright.

But at the same time, Olivier wasn't called the Northern Wall of Briggs for nothing. She was stationed there permanently. She couldn't just leave if - when - the Avatar got in trouble, nor could she send any of her men after him. The Avatar was on his own in Amestris. And like she'd said before, he was little more than a child. Certainly not the worst Avatar she could've been handed, she knew, but neither was he what she'd hoped for. He was going to need help if he was going to get to the Fuhrer alive and unbound.

Olivier closed her eyes and made her decision. "I've heard Reutlin is quite nice this time of year. I would highly recommend it as a nice vacation from your travels."

She opened her eyes to see the same relieved expression on every single one of Mustang's unit. Mustang himself was smiling at her. "Thanks for the recommendation, General. I'm sure we will have a very nice visit."

"Wipe that smug grin off your face. It's sickening." She spun on her heel, before pausing and turning back for one last threatening glare. "Listen well, Colonel. If I hear anything - _anything -_ that suggests your loyalties are different from what you've lead me to believe, you can expect your vacation to be permanent."

Mustang just smiled, totally unmoved. Damn bastard. "I will keep that in mind, but you don't need to worry, General. My loyalties are exactly what I told you, and they are not inclined to shift at any point in time. My lieutenant here has full permission to stab me should they do so."

"Indeed," Hawkeye confirmed.

Olivier's lip curled. Another thing she disliked about Mustang - his clear fraternization with his subordinate! However, she was hardly going to turn him in now. She turned and walked away, throwing one last command over her shoulder. "See to it that they remain so."

Olivier exited the mess hall having either gained an ally or an enemy, with only time to tell which one. For her sake and the Avatar's, she hoped it was the former.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yeah, Roy's my favorite character lol. What can I say? I'm a sucker for Roy's unswerving sense of justice and his willingness to be put to justice once he becomes Fuhrer and rights all of the wrongs of Amestris. Moral responsibility is sexy, ladies.  
> That being said, THIS Roy isn't quite the same as canon Roy...

**Author's Note:**

> Reposting this cause AO3 didn't list it for like, over a day... anyway, this is a super niche fic BUT I have some really cool ideas for it, so stick around for 'em!


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